Romance Europe is the area of Europe where Romance languages are either official, co-official, or significantly used. It is a major linguistic subdivision of Europe alongside Germanic- and Slavic-speaking subdivisions.
The Romance European countries are France, Italy, Moldova, Portugal, Romania and Spain, as well as Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and the Vatican City. Many of these countries are members of the Latin Union. It also includes some regions from other countries, such as Wallonia in Belgium and the French- and Italian-speaking cantons of Switzerland as well as communities from other non-Romance European countries. Eastern Romance languages like Romanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian are spread across the entire Balkans in small communities within Slavic-speaking countries, Greece and the European part of Turkey. The total population of all the Romance speaking areas in Europe is approximately 190,000,000.
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The spread of the Roman Empire brought with it Vulgar Latin. After the fall of the empire, this started to break up into different dialects, and eventually, whole separate languages, resulting in the Romance languages of today.
| Romance Languages Used | Religion | Area | Population | GDP (PPP) of whole country | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andorra | Catalan (Official) |
Roman Catholic | 468 km² | 71,822 | $2,770,000,000 | - | |
| Belgium | Total (out of included areas) | French (Regionally Official) (Regionally Co-Official) |
Roman Catholic | 17,005 km² | 4,407,705 | $316,200,000,000 | - |
| Wallonia | French (Official) |
- | 16,844 km² | 3,376,490 | - | - | |
| Brussels | French (Co-Official) |
- | 161 km² | 1,031,215 | - | - | |
| Croatia | Total (out of included areas) | Italian (Regionally Official) |
Roman Catholic (85%) | 2,820 km² | 206,344 | $69,440,000,000 | - |
| Istria county | Italian (Official) Istriot (Regional) Istro-Romanian (Regional) |
- | 2,820 km² | 206,344 | - | - | |
| France | French (Official) |
Roman Catholic | 551,695 km² | 61,875,822 | $1,871,000,000,000 |
Exceptions:
|
|
| Gibraltar | Spanish (Unofficial) |
Roman Catholic | 6.8 km² | 28,875 | $769,000,000 | As a British overseas territory, it has a sole official language of English even though the vast majority of the population is bilingual together with Spanish. In addition to this the majority of Gibraltarians speak Llanito (an Andalusian Spanish-based creole unique to Gibraltar) as their vernacular. | |
| Greece | Megleno-Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox | - | 4,000 | - | - | |
| Guernsey | French (Unofficial) |
- | 78 km² | 65,573 | $2,590,000,000 | Guernsey and Jersey both have various use of French and Norman language, although admittedly in decline. | |
| Italy | Total (out of included areas) | Italian (Official) |
Roman Catholic | 301,318 km² | 59,337,888 | $1,888,000,000,000 |
Exceptions:
|
| Aosta Valley | French (Co-Official) |
- | - | - | - | ||
| South Tyrol | Ladin (Co-Official) |
- | - | - | - | ||
| Jersey | French (Co-official) |
- | 116 km² | 89,300 | $5,100,000,000 | Jersey and Guernsey both have various use of French and Norman language, although admittedly in decline. In the case of Jersey, this includes Jersey Law French, and Jerriais, and in the case of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, there is also law French there, in addition to Guernesais and Sercquais. French was an official language of Alderney of Guernsey until the late 1960s. | |
| Luxembourg | French (Co-Official) |
Roman Catholic (87%) |
2,586.4 km² | 480,222 | $32,600,000,000 | - | |
| Macedonia | Total (out of included areas) | Aromanian (Official) Megleno-Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox (64.7%) |
25,713 km² | 2,055,915 | $16,940,000,000 | - |
| Kruševo, Skopje, Bitola, Štip | Aromanian (Official) |
Eastern Orthodox | - | 10,000 (est.) | - | - | |
| Huma | Megleno-Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox | - | 2,000 (est.) | - | - | |
| Malta | Italian (Unofficial) (Previously Official) |
Roman Catholic (98%) |
316 km² | 401,880 | $9,342,000,000 | Although Maltese is a Semitic Language, a good portion of Maltese vocabulary is Romance, having been imported from Italian, Sicilian, and French.[2][3] | |
| Moldova | Moldovan (Romanian) (Official) |
Eastern Orthodox (95.5%) |
33,843 km² | 4,320,490 | $9,999,000,000 | - | |
| Monaco | French (Official) |
- | 1.95 km² | 32,671 | $976,000,000 | - | |
| Portugal |
Portuguese (Official) |
Roman Catholic (84%) |
92,345 km² | 10,642,836 | $232,000,000,000 | - | |
| Romania | Romanian (Official) |
Eastern Orthodox (86.7%) |
238,392 km² | 22,276,056 | $256,900,000,000 |
Exceptions:
|
|
| San Marino | Italian (Official) |
- | 61 km² | 29,615 | $904,000,000 | - | |
| Serbia | Total (out of included areas) | Romanian (Regionally Co-Official) (Regionally Unofficial) |
- | 28636 km² | 60,000 (est.) | $64,000,000,000 | - |
| Vojvodina | Romanian (Co-Official) |
Eastern Orthodox | 21,506 km² | 29,512 | - | - | |
| Timočka Krajina | Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox | 7,130 km² | 25,000 (est.) | - | - | |
| Slovenia | Total (out of included areas) | Italian (Regionally Official) |
- | 384.4 km² | 78,846 | $47,841,000,000 | - |
| Piran | Italian (Official) |
- | 44.6 km² | 16,758 | - | - | |
| Izola | Italian (Official) |
- | 28.6 km² | 14,549 | - | - | |
| Koper | Italian (Official) |
- | 311.2 km² | 47,539 | - | - | |
| Spain | Total (out of included areas) | Spanish (Official) Catalan (Regionally Co-Official) Galician (Regionally Co-Official) Aranese (Regionally Co-Official) Aragonese (Regionally Recognised) Asturian (Regionally Recognised) |
- | 504,030 km² | 46,087,191 | $1,362,000,000,000 |
Exceptions:
|
| Aragon | Aragonese (Recognised) Catalan (Recognised) |
- | 47,719 km² | 1,277,471 | - | ||
| Asturias | Asturian (Recognised) |
- | - | - | - | ||
| Catalonia | Catalan (Co-Official) Aranese (Co-Official) |
- | - | - | - | ||
| Valencia | Catalan (officially called Valencian) (Co-Official) |
- | - | - | - | ||
| Balearic Islands | Catalan (Co-Official) |
- | - | - | - | ||
| Galicia | Galician (Co-Official) |
- | - | - | - | - | |
| Switzerland | Total (out of included areas) | Italian (Regionally Official) (Regionally Co-Official) French (Regionally Official Reginally Co-Official) Romansh (Regionally Co-Official) |
- | 27906 km² | 3,353,597 | $296,200,000,000 | - |
| Graubünden | Italian (Co-Official) Romansh (Co-Official) |
- | 7,105 km² | 187,920 | - | - | |
| Berne | French (Co-Official) |
- | 5,959 km² | 958,897 | - | - | |
| Fribourg | French (Co-Official) |
- | 1,671 km² | 258252 | - | - | |
| Valais | French (Co-Official) |
- | 5,224 km² | 294,608 | - | - | |
| Vaud | French (Official) |
- | 3212 km² | 657,700 | - | - | |
| Neuchâtel | French (Official) |
- | 803 km² | 168,912 | - | - | |
| Geneva | French (Official) |
- | 282 km² | 433,235 | - | - | |
| Jura | French (Official) |
- | 838 km² | 69,222 | - | - | |
| Ticino | Italian (Official) |
- | 2,812 km² | 324,851 | - | - | |
| Ukraine | Total (out of included areas) | Romanian (Regionally Unofficial) |
- | 54,184 km² | 4,533,853 | $364,300,000,000 | |
| Odessa Oblast | Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox | 33,310 km² | 2,387,543 | - | - | |
| Zakarpattia Oblast | Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox | 12,777 km² | 1,241,887 | - | - | |
| Chernivtsi Oblast | Romanian (Unofficial) |
Eastern Orthodox | 8,097 km² | 904,423 | - | - | |
| Vatican City | Italian (de facto) |
- | 0.44 km² | 821 | - | - | |
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